I am surprised you didn't touch on processing / curing. The ease of handing and drying smaller diameter wood is a huge benefit especially as you get older.
We grow our hybrid willow so we only split the bottom 3ft at the most. The rest make lovely logs (right down to an inch dia) that do take a bit longer to season but its worth it to cut out a processing step.
Ha! maybe, but this one covers off most of our findings very eloquently so no need. Euc won our trials for best firewood logs overall in a very short space of time but didn't coppice that well so willow was still the eventual winner.
Yeah, around here in Kentucky there is SO much oak for firewood. I got a lot of pine from a guy down the street, and split it. Its curing for this winter. A neighbor laughed at me and said I shouldn't burn pine. I laughed and told him I have been burning pine for many years. I'll admit, White Oak is the best wood if you want to through a log on and be busy for awhile. Willow and pine will require more maintenance, but its not really that much more.
I got through a very cold ( for England 😊) winter burning just pallet wood i sourced for free . I think they mainly use pine for them. Burns hot but you had to restart the fire every morning.
@@leeetchells609 How cold? Here in Kentucky I work in a small 10 x 16 workshop all winter with a wood stove for heat. Uninsulated. It can get -10 degrees Fahrenheit here on the worse days. The last few winters haven't seen that extreme cold. Im testing out a new stove this winter.
@@raycecil4643 what do you recommend for fireplace chimney maintenance? I am adding using willow now, but I don't have much of it yet lol.. I have to burn wood that's gotten wet, survival... But I want to find the cheapest and easiest way to make sure my chimney is safe. I burned cans last year but I really don't know what I'm doing, so maybe you can help. Thanks!!
What a great video. We grow willow on a larger scale for biomass production. We grow and multiply new hybrid varieties. I would be happy to show you around. We are based near Carlisle.
I've been burning dead dry sunflower stems and branches to make quick fires for tea and less often boil spaghetti. I use dried leaves for the fire starters. I'm in west African region, haven't seen Willow around here
Excellent video, and an important perspective. I often tell people that willow is far more important than they might realize, and for the reasons you've listed here. I'd also point out that this is a good way of approaching a lot of things around the homestead because you're considering the 2nd Order and 3rd Order Effects of a decision. One of the reasons we're in the current state of things is precisely because folks never stopped to think about the ripples their actions will cause. Those willow trees, for example, will grow quickly for you, but they also provide material to make baskets and spoons and bowls. Now, some might say that's irrelevant, but lets consider the 2nd Order and 3rd Order effects that come from turning our backs on the traditional ways of our fathers and grandfathers. We were talked into buying mass-produced stuff manufactured in some far off land rather than buying local goods produced by local craftsmen from local materials. Not only did that cost us a sense of community, of who we were as a people, but it meant that now our own folks had to scramble to find work. The bodgers are still around, but they've been relegated to a cutesy boutique kind of thing, and it's certainly not something you can easily make a living at. So what generational knowledge was lost in the process? How many uses for those different trees have we completely lost knowledge of because folks stopped interacting with the landscape? How many gallons of oil have we burned up just to manufacture and ship the chintzy goods from the other side of the globe? How did we get to a point where the taxes and regulations were so extensive and costly... that it's somehow cheaper to make something halfway around the world and transport it to a store near us rather than just make the product in the next county over? It might seem a weird way of looking at the situation, but it's an important way to look. For example, we are surrounded by trees, yet something as simple as the wooden spoons we use in the kitchen are mass-produced on the other side of the world rather than made by a carver just down the road. Does that really make sense? How can a culture survive and thrive when they don't really make anything for themselves? In the end, it only helps to preserve the woodlands and the natural ecosystem if we can see the physical value the trees and plants hold. And that takes something tangible, like stirring a pot of soup with a spoon made from the trees all around you. Culture is the collection of a million little things that sets you apart from 'the other'. It should be celebrated.
Absolutely!! I actually consider everything you've mentioned quite often! Losing the wisdom of the old ways costs us everything, our freedom is the biggest as we create a slavery to the machine economy, factories have to have workers and workers must be on time... No more building your own things and moving as the spirit moves you, or stopping to discuss with ol' Betsy all her family's engagements, who will make what at the church banquet, and everyone's health... Nope, we rush off thru traffic that makes us angry, to check in to a job we don't really like, to pay for things we never have time to fully enjoy... Including our family. Going back to the old ways offers freedom, you're literally building and providing a place that's way more free and less oppressive, for entire families. Buying local, encouraging and teaching others the things we can easily build, create, cook, grow, etc., and building a market for these things creates a community that's free. People are free to find work that fulfills them and they won't get fired staying home to sit by a family member who's ill... Or care for your wife during pregnancy... Hubby need a hand on a project? Easy enough, wifey can pop in and help or your neighborhood /community network is a free rolodex of experts in every random thing you can imagine. Much better than paying big corporate conglomerates to send someone out and over charge you while doing a half Crack job! Better to barter or just pay your buddy. This also keeps money local. That's a huge deal many people do not comprehend! Imagine playing monopoly, but instead of paying your neighbor for something, the money you payed is just removed from the game by someone sitting across the room. This is one reason why some communities are generationally impoverished. It's essential to have a local economy, many small businesses and to use big box stores at a bare minimum! I realize it's impossible to do away with them totally right now, but hopefully we get to that point. They suck the wealth out of the community and give little back in low paying jobs. We also really need to start building a parallel society and economy. I always look for ideas and solutions and found goldbacks as a great idea for one solution. I got some and showed what they look like etc., (might need to go far down on my uploads to find it.).. but it's real gold in your hand and you could integrate locally via tips, which I've done and the people who got them were really surprised and intrigued. It's just an idea. God bless you and keep you.
@@speaklifegardenhomesteadpe8783 I often use the analogy of the garden to help people see it. If you don't "tend the garden", you can't expect a bountiful harvest. Unfortunately, tending the garden requires making tough calls. Weeds must be pulled. Fences must be maintained. If you listen to the snakes in the grass, they'll always have some "reason" why the weeds should be allowed or how the fences are an affront to polite society. They'll call you mean names and tell you how the weeds have every right to be there or how you should give of your bounty to those "in need". But you have to remain firm. Your father and grandfather worked hard to build that garden. If you slack off, it only makes it harder to recover when you come to your senses.... if you can recover at all. Those factories we once had might seem a horrible thing, but they employed countless people, providing much-needed goods for other craftsmen. The iron has to come from somewhere, after all, or the blacksmith can't make the farmer's tools. The key is always working to Tend the Garden. Everything must be considered, and you need to be conservative in your approach to things. Always think generations down the road rather than next week's paycheck. All the things that we used to make in The West are still being made, just not hear. We've made our nations so hostile to small businesses that it beggars belief. And for what? What good has come of it, truly? Are our streets not overrun with homelessness, poverty, drugs, and crime? Are our rivers really so much cleaner, and was the only way to achieve that a quick policy or law passed without time to think it through? Sure, folks got the minimum wage law passed, but at the cost of millions of jobs gone since customers wouldn't pay the increased costs in the goods and services. Folks got an extra few cents on the pay, but all the prices at the grocery store went up because all those employees also had to get paid more. Small businesses shuttered while the huge conglomerates were able to weather the storm. Everyone talks about the straw that broke the camel's back, but never the million straws that came before and how they prevented the camel from being healthy and productive. That tale was supposed to be a warning, the moral of the story that you shouldn't think that a single straw is no big deal because little things can add up quickly, and to your detriment.
Wow...these are great comments, like reading a positive pamphlet of the as appreciated old ways and perspectives on viewing them. Good stuff and of course the best pup on this tractor of land is Hazel. You can tell a lot about the people if you watch the behavior of their pets and livestock. ✅✅✅
@@jirusjirus9322 Thank you for your kind words. I'm honored that you found value in my comments. Everyone talks about the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back', but we never think about the million straws that came before. That parable was supposed to teach us to consider the impact even the smallest actions have, and how we need to work diligently to protect the things that provide for us. Not one of those million straws seemed at all consequential. None of them had any significant weight to them. And everyone had a justification for why their straw was important and must be added to the camel. We need to be watchful for snakes in the grass trying to convince us that they know better if only we'll support them and their ideas, but we also have to watch ourselves because we can often be led by our emotions and short--term thinking. Our greed, lust, and gluttony can manifest in crazy ways, odd as that might seem to say. We naturally desire more and better for ourselves, but we never think about the long-term costs of what seems like a good thing in the moment. Like kids with candies, we only see the enjoyment of the moment and not the cavities that come in a year.
Hybrid Popular is your answer. I planted two dozen of them in 2012 and they are now all 18 to 20 inches in diameter. They coppice well. The wood splits easily and you can just trim off young branches, stick them in good soil, and they will root.
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. We did try 4 or 5 hybrid poplar varieties several years ago, but they did not do well. Might try again as the aspens we have are doing really well.
Absolutely love your channel. I was a groundsman for tree surgeons for a while but always wondered why people looked down on wood if it wasn't Oak, Beech, Birch or Ash. I loved taking the smaller "rubbish bits" of different species for my fire at home. Cherry and Apple wood are a couple of my favourites due to how they smell but Willow has always impressed me how quick it grows and how resilient it is. We can't rely on oak and beech as they purely take too long for me, no doubt they burn fantastic but waiting 30 years to harvest for firewood is too long without having 10 acres or more to go at. Keep the education going man ❤
Pollarding the mature trees can still work well, we pollard our apple trees for wood every so many years. We have a huge weeping willow that was cut to a stump before we arrived and although the center rotted away enough branches sprouted to support new growth, it's definitely weeker and so I don't allow it grow too tall and so I Pollard the higher branches, 13years on it's a fabulous tree 5m tall and I've had two crops of fire wood from it. Hazel is also one of the most carbon dense woods which makes it excellent for fire wood and as a building material. Loved the video, very well done. Cheers J
i planted and coppiced willow, it worked well enough from rough ground with no trees. i was able to harvest logs from about 5 years after planting., every 5 years........
one of the things i liked about having willow was that i could feed the smaller side branches to my rabbits. when spring clean up came all went on the resting veggy bed and the willow branches would not regrow and be gone by the next year of growing.
Very interesting and educational. Makes perfect sense when you stop and think about it. The fact that a resinous softwood puts off more heat per pound than say a oak was a shocker and again it makes sense when you stop...
I live in southern Australia where we have Eucalyptus. They are not filled with oil like most people think and dry out well. I planted some for firewood 20 years ago that are now over 25 metres tall because we haven't needed any of the new trees. Branches from 3 particular red species fall in winter storms and dry out over summer for next season. The wood from these species is very dense, burns well and ONE log the size of those, in the pile of wood in the video, will burn all night keeping the entire residence warm. The only drawback is that we have to cut the wood up soon after the branches fall otherwise to wood dries hard enough to blunt chainsaws very quickly.
Very interesting content, particularly the heat output per kg of wood comparison. If you have ample storage, wood type is neutral. But for max heat in min space go for a dense hardwood. Ash is probably a good option for us on the speed vs drying vs density vs coppicing metrics.
Very interesting video to watch. I must say my garden/land is not big enough for large coppicing fields of willow. Although it would be interesting to do. I got some hazelnuts that I copice every once in a while. What I did do recently is plant 5 pollard willows. Reason being is they provide plenty of firewood but need less groundspace to grow. They are quite common where I live and I'd say if maintained properply you can harvest them every 4-6years. They provide big stakes of 4-5m tall and with diameters up to 20cm.
Poplar is probably one the best, it grows exeeding quickly and propagates really easily from cuttings. Although not the longest burning, it gives out quick heat to start the fire off and then you can use some denser wood like oak or ash to prolong the burn.
Yes, we have been trialling several types of poplar. Aspen seems to be the best so far but they are too young to use as firewood at the moment. In a dozen years, that might be very different!
I really like how you give the research that shows the heat output per dry tonne. This overrides all the beliefs of many people based on no real evidence and should stop many debates.
Good points. I am in a semi arid sub-sahara savanna area. I grow sweet thorn trees for firewood. They are legumes and pioneers. I cut 10 of them every year and they are size by 5 years or so. I can not run out of trees because I plant again and there is enough space to allow them to grow to 10 years before I need them
Nice video. Im in Kentucky, and the "large trees" you mentioned that you wouldn't cut down would be considered small here!! I just had a 5' diameter red oak fall across my driveway last winter!!!
On my 30 acres I have a lot of Silver Maples. I coppiced about 20 of them last fall. Each tree was about 6" to 14" in Diameter. Each trunk now has a minimum of 12 shoots and they are all more than 1" in diameter already. Not even 1 year old shoots! I have enough oak for main firewood use, and some pine, but these coppice shoots will be harvested for fire starter wood. Silver maple when dry, and split, catches fire very fast.
I have recently concluded the same for me in the wet forest region of the northern Dordogne. Really useful video to confirm my own conclusions for an exposed, clay-rich hillside where we have wet autumns, winters and springs. I also have a neglected hazel coppice to try to encourage back but deer pressure is high so we'll have to see ...
Yes, it really is about choosing the right tree for your location. Deer can be a real problem for us too. We had to install a deer fence to enable our woodland to grow. I don't think you can pollard hazel.....
@@theviewfromtheclouds why wouldn't you be able to Pollard hazel? You can certainly prune it in an orchard. I used to propagate hazels and I'm pretty sure I've seen them topped and grow back. I'm not sure if that means you can do a proper pollard though
So… this Kiwi agrees with you. And great info on the calorific value of wood by weight. We live in Central Otago, New Zealand. Have always cut our own firewood, was pine, now willow. It’s a pest/ nuisance species here. Every riverbed is full of it. We cut it green, split it straight away: it’s really easy to cut and split when green. It dries super fast in our climate. I’m burning some now that I cut green in late December: it’s too dry, under 10%. I usually cut it from February onwards, start burning mid April. We get through about 10 cubic meters a winter. It has a bad reputation as firewood here, but that’s perhaps because folk season it too long, or only cut dry dead willow as a last minute option.
Interesting thoughts. I have never considered specifically growing trees for firewood- my thought is that trees are always being grown for a higher value purpose - timber, wind breaks, fruit, syrup and then the byproduct is firewood. Some percentage of trees will always fail to disease and wind etc...
Here in scandinavia, birch has always been considered the best firewood. It grows fast, it splits nicely, it dries fast and burns hot and clean. Depending on how you are burning your firewood, that last part can be very important. Pine and spruce are common throughout the whole region, but the evergreens has such a high content of resin, they create much more soot and residue in the stove or furnace, as well as in chimneys. Burning a lot of pine means you have a higher risk of chimney-fires, so you need to sweep your chimneys more frequently. If you have a modern glassed-in fireplace, that soot is going to clog it up instantly. If you are stoking your fire manually, the density of the wood determines how fast the fire burns out. Light woods like aspen or poplar will burn out very quickly, -releasing it's energy almost all at once, while heavy woods like oak will take more to ignite, and burns slowly. But I assume that you have a more mechanized system for stoking your fire if you rely on it for all-year heating. In that case it might not be an issue at all.
I burn allot of spruce and pine as well. I got a regular woodstove with a big glas front. The thing with evergreens is they do contain more resin but my chimney isn't dirtier then my friend's who burns moslty oak and birch. Evergreens dry out in about a year and a halve where I live but I tend to let them lay for 3years before burning. A good tip I got when starting to burn them is to burn them hotter. So with more airflow to the fire. I tend not to choke my fireplace as much with pine and spruce as when I am burning oak. When I load oak I tend to load 3/4 pieces depending upon size and with pine i mostly use 2. I only see smoke coming out the chimney for the first 5minutes then it stops smoking. A load of pine (2logs) burns for about 35/40minutes and a load of oak goes upwards to 1.5hours in my stove.
Really nice video :) From my experience with firewood the difference is how fast the wood burns. How is it with willow? I don't have much experience with it.
Excellent, straight forward explanation. Oaks trees are too precious for firewood. I like pines for ease of planting but because they don't coppice they are best saved for other purposes except when thinning poorly formed trees. I'm planting cottonwood background poplars which I feel is better adapted to my drier environment.
Willow isn't very common (at least in my area) in Canada, but I do see 2-3 of them when I go take care of my bees. I would like to have a piece of land with a house heated by wood. Maybe one day I will get to go harvest some branches to start a willow coppice. I did do a bit of research before I found your channel, and I thought that since Maple thrives over here and it is suitable for coppicing it would be a good choice. But I just found that it grows slower than willow (Red Maple is the fastest growing, but still grows at one third the speed of willow. Thank you for giving me the right question to ask 😊
Hi. I love coppicing and pollarding and my idea is to make poplar pollards for firewood as it is very adapted to here in Italy. But I'm concerned by "burning dynamics" of this type of softwood. Did you consider it? I guess that less dense wood, having more room for air, burn way quicker than denser woods, making insane amount of heat in a short time vs slower release. In Italy we say that burning chestnut is like burning paper (it's exaggerated but it gives the idea) as opposed to oak wood. Do you have insights or experience on that? Thank you!
all mass of dry wood has a similar potential heat and takes a similar time to grow. we use time for heating source when you look at it properly. of course it depends on ho you can regulate the air in your heating system - if you can effectively produce heat using smaller pieces of wood
Interesting video. I think people complicate firewood a bit too much. Pretty much all wood burns. What would be interesting are ways to help process it. I think thats the benefit of growing hard wood. 1 ton of hardwood is easier to process as it's half the work. If you split by hand, put your rounds packed tightly into an old car tyre and split them with an axe. Will save you loads of bending
Thanks for these interesting videos. I did a lot of coppicing and pollarding of Crack Willows when I lived in Yorkshire as a process of developing and improving a wetland nature reserve. I had a cottage in the Derwent Wetlands and had some huge gnarly White Willows on the boundary. I emigrated to BC in Canada in 2005 and have recently built a home in a forest of Birch (Paper Bark, Silver and Yellow Species), a predominance of Douglas Fir, some Balsam Fir, Alder and Brush Maple, White Spruce (on the decline) and Trembling Aspen. Local People are zealous in their pursuit of Douglas Fir as firewood and as far as they are concerned they will burn nothing else, they think the Aspen is the worst of the worse. I burn all species and find the Aspen, when well seasoned, goes very hard, I like to burn it because it is extremely clean burning, easy to split, not heavy and in plentiful supply. I also love the White Spruce because it ignites easily and blazes well which helps get the wood stove up to heat quickly and enables it to burn any slightly damp wood effectively. For the coldest days of winter (-25 to -35C) I keep a separate stack of Brush 'Vine Maple' it rarely exceeds 8'' diameter and when seasoned is a hard as rock (it looks like Beech when split) The Yellow Birch is the hardest of the Birches and burns best once seasoned for a couple of years. Our Alder rarely get above 20 feet and I have not burned any yet. Willows out here are more shrublike and easy to grow from whips, beyoond our boundary are some White Cedars and Cottonwoods (which do not burn well). What are of the UK are you living in? Best Regards, Chris
Hi, thanks for your comment. We live in Cumbria, so possibly a bit wetter and milder than Yorkshire. Willow grows very well here because of the rain. I have only been to Canada once, when I was little. It looks like a good place. Do you have much land out there?
Greetings from BC Canada. The area I lived in Yorkshire was the Derwent Valley just South of York, to the rear of my cottage were extensive wetlands fabled for their diverse waterfowl. I now live on the edge of the Shuswap lakes Region, 40 kms East of Kamloops BC. on the side of a mountain at 3,500 feet in 20 acres of forest comprising of Douglas Fir, three species of Birch, Trembling Aspen, White Spruce and a few Balsam Fir, Alder, and a lot of Vine Maples, lots of Scouler Willow a small species). To the North of my boundary on Crown (common) land there ar patches of Red Cedar and the occasional Cottonwood and Mountain Ash. The temperature variable here is from 35C in August to -35C in January with a fair amount of precipitation compared with the arid conditions in the valley to the East. I know Cumbria quite well from hiking and camping there. Best Wishes, Chris@@theviewfromtheclouds
Thanks for getting in touch. We have planted lots of shelterbelt, but those trees are still too small to be of much benefit yet. They will be a huge benefit eventually!
Agroforesters promoted sugar gum for woodlots in South Australia because it coppices about twelve times after harvesting repeatedly. Sugar gum is almost as good as mallee. Some of the mallee we have in South Australia is so hard it won’t burn in a combustion heater unless you keep kindling underneath the logs. Mallee fires like this are too hot to be comfortable.
Is Paulownia any good as firewood? It might not like your winds perhaps. It's interesting that different tree species, having stored a greatly varying number of growing seasons worth of sunlight, give such similar amounts of energy back when burnt.
I agree, it is surprising. I had not expected the similarity in heat by weight. Just shows the value of scientific smallholding! We tried Paulownia, but it does not like our climate. Pity, because it is a really interesting looking tree.
Interesting facts about calorific value but does that take into account the amount of time it takes to burn the equivalent sized log? apologies if that's a dumb question. One thing I dislike about burning pine or wood full of resin is it gives off black smoke and that creates furry black deposits that cling to the inside of my stainless flu. This makes cleaning it a monthly chore rather than every 3 months if I burn say ash.
Hi, I have thought about that too. I don't think I have seen any research on the burn speed vs heat density of different woods. That would be a good experiment for someone to do.
start making biochar and reapplying it to the trees it will increase aeration of the soil, drainage and help with plant fertility. trees will start producing heavy with large bud break numbers after vertical mulching hole around the trees and filling with biochar and fertilizer. It is what im doing in attempt to get a feed back loop.
My land is exceptionally damp so I planted lots of alder about 10 years ago. Having to fell about half of them now because they're too close together but they are about 10" diameter and should coppice back. Willow is almost out of control here and I have invested in a branch logger to deal with it effectively
If you don't want them in the final product, then no (although they need to be small or bendy enough so it can drag the branch through). If you feed it nicely snedded stuff, it'll chunk it up very quickly. If you don't have a tractor, you can get petrol powered ones. I have the Remet R120
@@theviewfromtheclouds I separate my wood into 3 piles - stuff that needs chainsawing and splitting, stuff that will go through the branch logger, and brash. I put the brash through first as it always clogs the spout (although the machine keeps going and it's easy to clear once switched off). I can then put the thicker stuff through, either into a builder's bag or into nets. I'll be uploading some videos at some point and I'll tag you in
i calculate for normal firewood about 1 kg = 4,5 kwh so 2 kg = 9 kwh that is the same 1 m3 natural gas = 9 kwh. so if you burn 1000 m3 gas or 1800 m3 gas you can easy calculate how much kg of wood you need. ( when putin close the gas valve off course )
Gas makes up the main component in fertilizers and in artillery propllants, so the cost of its heat is negligeable in comparisson. There will be lack of food and ammo.
Why haven't you considered chestnut trees? You can coppice them from around 10 - 15yrs old. A bonus is all of the bluebells that come to life once an area has been coppiced.
In Canada we buy firewood by the "cord" which is a whacky unit of volume. So, people prefer dense wood. You buy firewood by volume, but what you want is dry weight... It's imperfect
Hi senorjp21, yes it would be ideal if we could buy wood by dry weight. However, I think the cord system does have some strong advantages over what we have here in the UK. As long as you have an idea what species you are buying, you can make a good guess as to the heat content based on how many cords you are buying as it is much the same size green and dry. Sadly, here in the UK, there is no standard firewood measure of any sort so you really have little idea what you are buying till arrives. The quantity is often just described as 'what fits in the pickup'! It is less than ideal.
My choice in soil that isn't quite so boggy would be to grow hazel. Depending on the species (and most require 2 different species for cross-pollination), you can get nuts within 2-4 years of growth, and they can be coppiced every 5 years, so you'd get fuel for your body as well as fuel for your hearth!
@@theviewfromtheclouds Awesome! I live near Seattle, so obviously I'd be going with native hazelnut species as much as possible. It's always best to get whatever is native since it's far more likely to survive the local climate conditions. I'd also pick hazel for another reason: It burns hot even at small diameters, which makes it great for a Rocket Mass Heater. Oak is great for a more traditional woodstove or fireplace, but I prefer the much steadier heat and thermal efficiency of RMHs. For an RMH, you don't want big thick pieces of long-lasting slow-burning firewood; you want thin pieces that burn hot enough to re-ignite the volatile organic compounds in the smoke, giving you a secondary burn and dramatically reducing ash residue & creosote buildup. I know a lot of people have been slamming willow as a poor choice for firewood, but if a person splits and thoroughly dries the coppiced branches, you'll still manage to get quite a lot of BTUs out of the wood with a Rocket Mass Heater. ...For those who don't like the idea of playing around with constructing your own RMH with heated cob bench, etc, you can instead consider getting a soapstone fireplace, such as the Tulikivi, out of Finland. They have a similar thermal storage-and-release capacity, using soapstone instead of cob as the primary thermal mass. (Even just a more normal style woodstove with soapstone side panels will produce a longer-lasting heat over several hours than a regular iron woodstove, which will heat up faster, but cool down a lot quicker as well, meaning you'd have to constantly low-and-slow burn the wood in it to maintain heat overnight...and still have to get up to feed the fire a number of times, all of which leads to severe creosote buildup in short order.)
I didn't see Leylandii on that list. I've been burning it in my wood stove and it's as good if not better than yew. I know everyone looks down on it as an abomination but it's fast growing, makes an excellent wind break and there's loads of it!
I agree that it generally grows well in most areas. We have planted a few dozen of them as a windbreak, but ours are not doing that well. The ground here is very wet. I am not sure why some species were included on that graph and others were not. I suppose Leylandii is not commonly grown for its timber so it got left out? Not sure.
Yes, I think you are right. Finding the right variety of poplar is the challenge though.. We have planted 6 or 7 different varieties and hybrids, but none of them thrived. I have a few more to try, so hopefully we will have some success soon!
The Firewood Poem By Lady Celia Congreve Published in The Times: March 2nd 1930 These hardwoods burn well and slowly, Ash, beech, hawthorn oak and holly. Softwoods flare up quick and fine, Birch, fir, hazel, larch and pine. Elm and willow you’ll regret, Chestnut green and sycamore wet. Beechwood fires are bright and clear, If the logs are kept a year. Chestnut’s only good, they say, If for long ’tis laid away. But Ash new or Ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold. Birch and fir logs bum too fast, Blaze up bright and do not last. It is by the Irish said, Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood bums like churchyard mould, E’en the very flames are cold. But Ash green or Ash brown, Is fit for a queen with golden crown. Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke. Apple wood will scent your room, With an incense like perfume. Oaken logs if dry and old, Keep away the winter’s cold. But Ash wet or Ash dry, A king shall warm his slippers by. Oak logs will warm you well, That are old and dry. Logs of pine will sweetly smell, But the sparks will fly. Birch logs will burn too fast, Chestnut scarce at all sir. Hawthorn logs are good to last, That are cut well in the fall sir Holly logs will burn like wax, You could burn them green. Elm logs burn like smouldering flax, With no flame to be seen. Beech logs for winter time, Yew logs as well sir. Green elder logs it is a crime, For any man to sell sir. Pear logs and apple logs, They will scent your room. And cherry logs across the dogs, They smell like flowers of broom. But Ash logs smooth and grey, Buy them green or old, sir. And buy up all that come your way, They’re worth their weight in gold sir. Logs to Burn, Logs to burn, Logs to burn, Logs to save the coal a turn. Here’s a word to make you wise, When you hear the woodman’s cries. Never heed his usual tale, That he has good logs for sale. But read these lines and really learn, The proper kind of logs to burn
@@theviewfromtheclouds Aye down in the southeast here where the marshes are it's largely willows and Poplars that do anything aha. To be fair the Oak does alright but is definitely the land of the Salix at sea level lol
@@theviewfromtheclouds I love you 🤟 🥰 Thank you so much for these videos - for sharing your knowledge and lifestyle for others to be inspired by… keep doing what you are doing 😇
Sorry, but volume matters, weight doesn’t. The only fact on this video - calories chart is interesting, but useless. It is how much volume you grow in an acre, how much volume wood takes in shed, how much of it fits in your stove and then how often you need to refuel. It is ALL about volume, not weight. Willow is the absolute worst firewood - very twisty, hard to chop, least calorific value, rots asap if gets wet. Furthermore it propagates like crazy. Sure, if nothing else grows, it’s ok, but there are better species that will save your time vs give loads of volume of crappy wood to deal with.
@@richardweaver1062 don’t get me wrong, I think in your case willow is great, white/black alder would likely be better (black better for wind resistance). It would be interesting to see some number based wind resistance, root penetration numbers. Since both my and your opinion it’s just that - an opinion. I have read a good few books on forestry and tree species (native to Lithuania) and the numbers can be found :)
I was surprised alder wasn’t mentioned. I live in the same part of the world as the video maker and it does really well. Willow is good if you are chipping it for biomass, not so good for wood burning logs as it grows long thin whips rather than solid branches.
Hi, thanks for the comment. We have also planted lots of alder. It does grow here, but not at nearly the speed of willow and aspen. Glad it is working well for you, though!
Willow produces less heat than many other types of wood. Willow ranks poorly for coaling. Willow is really good kindling.I would burn it if that is all I could get. I mix it with all my good wood works great. Willow is definitely not the best firewood in the world.
I suppose it depends on how you get your wood. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy willow, but as for growing it... that is a different question. For us, on our land, it seems to be the most promising so far. Your situation may be very different. Thanks for your thoughts.
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I am surprised you didn't touch on processing / curing. The ease of handing and drying smaller diameter wood is a huge benefit especially as you get older.
You are thinking like I am - drying firewood is on the list for a future video!
We grow our hybrid willow so we only split the bottom 3ft at the most. The rest make lovely logs (right down to an inch dia) that do take a bit longer to season but its worth it to cut out a processing step.
Ha! maybe, but this one covers off most of our findings very eloquently so no need. Euc won our trials for best firewood logs overall in a very short space of time but didn't coppice that well so willow was still the eventual winner.
Wow, finally someone talking sense. There’s too much snobbery and ignorance surrounding wood as fuel. Thank you.
Thanks for that - glad you liked it!
Yeah, around here in Kentucky there is SO much oak for firewood. I got a lot of pine from a guy down the street, and split it. Its curing for this winter. A neighbor laughed at me and said I shouldn't burn pine. I laughed and told him I have been burning pine for many years. I'll admit, White Oak is the best wood if you want to through a log on and be busy for awhile. Willow and pine will require more maintenance, but its not really that much more.
I got through a very cold ( for England 😊) winter burning just pallet wood i sourced for free . I think they mainly use pine for them. Burns hot but you had to restart the fire every morning.
@@leeetchells609 How cold? Here in Kentucky I work in a small 10 x 16 workshop all winter with a wood stove for heat. Uninsulated. It can get -10 degrees Fahrenheit here on the worse days. The last few winters haven't seen that extreme cold. Im testing out a new stove this winter.
@@raycecil4643 what do you recommend for fireplace chimney maintenance? I am adding using willow now, but I don't have much of it yet lol.. I have to burn wood that's gotten wet, survival... But I want to find the cheapest and easiest way to make sure my chimney is safe. I burned cans last year but I really don't know what I'm doing, so maybe you can help. Thanks!!
What a great video. We grow willow on a larger scale for biomass production. We grow and multiply new hybrid varieties. I would be happy to show you around. We are based near Carlisle.
Thank you for that - sounds really interesting. I found your company's website and I have sent you an email. Look forward to talking with you.
I've been burning dead dry sunflower stems and branches to make quick fires for tea and less often boil spaghetti. I use dried leaves for the fire starters. I'm in west African region, haven't seen Willow around here
Excellent video, and an important perspective. I often tell people that willow is far more important than they might realize, and for the reasons you've listed here. I'd also point out that this is a good way of approaching a lot of things around the homestead because you're considering the 2nd Order and 3rd Order Effects of a decision. One of the reasons we're in the current state of things is precisely because folks never stopped to think about the ripples their actions will cause.
Those willow trees, for example, will grow quickly for you, but they also provide material to make baskets and spoons and bowls. Now, some might say that's irrelevant, but lets consider the 2nd Order and 3rd Order effects that come from turning our backs on the traditional ways of our fathers and grandfathers.
We were talked into buying mass-produced stuff manufactured in some far off land rather than buying local goods produced by local craftsmen from local materials. Not only did that cost us a sense of community, of who we were as a people, but it meant that now our own folks had to scramble to find work. The bodgers are still around, but they've been relegated to a cutesy boutique kind of thing, and it's certainly not something you can easily make a living at. So what generational knowledge was lost in the process? How many uses for those different trees have we completely lost knowledge of because folks stopped interacting with the landscape? How many gallons of oil have we burned up just to manufacture and ship the chintzy goods from the other side of the globe? How did we get to a point where the taxes and regulations were so extensive and costly... that it's somehow cheaper to make something halfway around the world and transport it to a store near us rather than just make the product in the next county over?
It might seem a weird way of looking at the situation, but it's an important way to look. For example, we are surrounded by trees, yet something as simple as the wooden spoons we use in the kitchen are mass-produced on the other side of the world rather than made by a carver just down the road. Does that really make sense? How can a culture survive and thrive when they don't really make anything for themselves? In the end, it only helps to preserve the woodlands and the natural ecosystem if we can see the physical value the trees and plants hold. And that takes something tangible, like stirring a pot of soup with a spoon made from the trees all around you. Culture is the collection of a million little things that sets you apart from 'the other'. It should be celebrated.
Absolutely!! I actually consider everything you've mentioned quite often! Losing the wisdom of the old ways costs us everything, our freedom is the biggest as we create a slavery to the machine economy, factories have to have workers and workers must be on time... No more building your own things and moving as the spirit moves you, or stopping to discuss with ol' Betsy all her family's engagements, who will make what at the church banquet, and everyone's health... Nope, we rush off thru traffic that makes us angry, to check in to a job we don't really like, to pay for things we never have time to fully enjoy... Including our family.
Going back to the old ways offers freedom, you're literally building and providing a place that's way more free and less oppressive, for entire families.
Buying local, encouraging and teaching others the things we can easily build, create, cook, grow, etc., and building a market for these things creates a community that's free. People are free to find work that fulfills them and they won't get fired staying home to sit by a family member who's ill... Or care for your wife during pregnancy... Hubby need a hand on a project? Easy enough, wifey can pop in and help or your neighborhood /community network is a free rolodex of experts in every random thing you can imagine. Much better than paying big corporate conglomerates to send someone out and over charge you while doing a half Crack job! Better to barter or just pay your buddy.
This also keeps money local. That's a huge deal many people do not comprehend! Imagine playing monopoly, but instead of paying your neighbor for something, the money you payed is just removed from the game by someone sitting across the room. This is one reason why some communities are generationally impoverished. It's essential to have a local economy, many small businesses and to use big box stores at a bare minimum! I realize it's impossible to do away with them totally right now, but hopefully we get to that point. They suck the wealth out of the community and give little back in low paying jobs.
We also really need to start building a parallel society and economy. I always look for ideas and solutions and found goldbacks as a great idea for one solution. I got some and showed what they look like etc., (might need to go far down on my uploads to find it.).. but it's real gold in your hand and you could integrate locally via tips, which I've done and the people who got them were really surprised and intrigued. It's just an idea.
God bless you and keep you.
@@speaklifegardenhomesteadpe8783 I often use the analogy of the garden to help people see it. If you don't "tend the garden", you can't expect a bountiful harvest. Unfortunately, tending the garden requires making tough calls. Weeds must be pulled. Fences must be maintained. If you listen to the snakes in the grass, they'll always have some "reason" why the weeds should be allowed or how the fences are an affront to polite society. They'll call you mean names and tell you how the weeds have every right to be there or how you should give of your bounty to those "in need".
But you have to remain firm. Your father and grandfather worked hard to build that garden. If you slack off, it only makes it harder to recover when you come to your senses.... if you can recover at all.
Those factories we once had might seem a horrible thing, but they employed countless people, providing much-needed goods for other craftsmen. The iron has to come from somewhere, after all, or the blacksmith can't make the farmer's tools.
The key is always working to Tend the Garden. Everything must be considered, and you need to be conservative in your approach to things. Always think generations down the road rather than next week's paycheck.
All the things that we used to make in The West are still being made, just not hear. We've made our nations so hostile to small businesses that it beggars belief. And for what? What good has come of it, truly? Are our streets not overrun with homelessness, poverty, drugs, and crime? Are our rivers really so much cleaner, and was the only way to achieve that a quick policy or law passed without time to think it through?
Sure, folks got the minimum wage law passed, but at the cost of millions of jobs gone since customers wouldn't pay the increased costs in the goods and services. Folks got an extra few cents on the pay, but all the prices at the grocery store went up because all those employees also had to get paid more. Small businesses shuttered while the huge conglomerates were able to weather the storm.
Everyone talks about the straw that broke the camel's back, but never the million straws that came before and how they prevented the camel from being healthy and productive. That tale was supposed to be a warning, the moral of the story that you shouldn't think that a single straw is no big deal because little things can add up quickly, and to your detriment.
Wow...these are great comments, like reading a positive pamphlet of the as appreciated old ways and perspectives on viewing them.
Good stuff and of course the best pup on this tractor of land is Hazel.
You can tell a lot about the people if you watch the behavior of their pets and livestock. ✅✅✅
@@jirusjirus9322 Thank you for your kind words. I'm honored that you found value in my comments.
Everyone talks about the proverbial 'straw that broke the camel's back', but we never think about the million straws that came before. That parable was supposed to teach us to consider the impact even the smallest actions have, and how we need to work diligently to protect the things that provide for us. Not one of those million straws seemed at all consequential. None of them had any significant weight to them. And everyone had a justification for why their straw was important and must be added to the camel.
We need to be watchful for snakes in the grass trying to convince us that they know better if only we'll support them and their ideas, but we also have to watch ourselves because we can often be led by our emotions and short--term thinking. Our greed, lust, and gluttony can manifest in crazy ways, odd as that might seem to say. We naturally desire more and better for ourselves, but we never think about the long-term costs of what seems like a good thing in the moment. Like kids with candies, we only see the enjoyment of the moment and not the cavities that come in a year.
Hybrid Popular is your answer. I planted two dozen of them in 2012 and they are now all 18 to 20 inches in diameter. They coppice well. The wood splits easily and you can just trim off young branches, stick them in good soil, and they will root.
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. We did try 4 or 5 hybrid poplar varieties several years ago, but they did not do well. Might try again as the aspens we have are doing really well.
Absolutely love your channel. I was a groundsman for tree surgeons for a while but always wondered why people looked down on wood if it wasn't Oak, Beech, Birch or Ash.
I loved taking the smaller "rubbish bits" of different species for my fire at home.
Cherry and Apple wood are a couple of my favourites due to how they smell but Willow has always impressed me how quick it grows and how resilient it is.
We can't rely on oak and beech as they purely take too long for me, no doubt they burn fantastic but waiting 30 years to harvest for firewood is too long without having 10 acres or more to go at.
Keep the education going man ❤
Goat willow for me (thanks Dad 30 years ago!). And in other news, that dog is one great big fluffle floof 😍😎
She really is! The willow tree that I show in the video is/was a goat willow. It was doing really well. Sad that it blew down...
A refreshingly nuanced video!
Thanks, I like 'getting into the weeds' with this sort of stuff - glad you liked it.
Pollarding the mature trees can still work well, we pollard our apple trees for wood every so many years. We have a huge weeping willow that was cut to a stump before we arrived and although the center rotted away enough branches sprouted to support new growth, it's definitely weeker and so I don't allow it grow too tall and so I Pollard the higher branches, 13years on it's a fabulous tree 5m tall and I've had two crops of fire wood from it. Hazel is also one of the most carbon dense woods which makes it excellent for fire wood and as a building material. Loved the video, very well done. Cheers J
A worthy channel, calm voice - we need more of such content
Thanks for that!
Most definitely 🌲
i planted and coppiced willow, it worked well enough from rough ground with no trees. i was able to harvest logs from about 5 years after planting., every 5 years........
Sounds like you got a quick growing variety and it clearly likes where you are growing it. Glad you are doing well!
I’m really appreciating your videos and outlook on life🙂
Thank you!
Interesting video. Well made, great info. Hope to see more of your project :)
Be well
Thanks for that!
Spot on! Loving your videos, thanks for sharing.
You are very welcome - glad you like them!
Really informative. Many thanks.
Excellent video and info! Great perspective. Thanks
Thanks for that! I'm glad the science bit worked well. There will be more like that on the way!
one of the things i liked about having willow was that i could feed the smaller side branches to my rabbits. when spring clean up came all went on the resting veggy bed and the willow branches would not regrow and be gone by the next year of growing.
Very interesting and educational. Makes perfect sense when you stop and think about it. The fact that a resinous softwood puts off more heat per pound than say a oak was a shocker and again it makes sense when you stop...
Thanks for that. Glad you enjoyed it.
I live in southern Australia where we have Eucalyptus. They are not filled with oil like most people think and dry out well. I planted some for firewood 20 years ago that are now over 25 metres tall because we haven't needed any of the new trees. Branches from 3 particular red species fall in winter storms and dry out over summer for next season. The wood from these species is very dense, burns well and ONE log the size of those, in the pile of wood in the video, will burn all night keeping the entire residence warm.
The only drawback is that we have to cut the wood up soon after the branches fall otherwise to wood dries hard enough to blunt chainsaws very quickly.
Lovely channel. Deserves more subs and likes!
Thank you for saying so - it means a lot!
Very interesting content, particularly the heat output per kg of wood comparison. If you have ample storage, wood type is neutral. But for max heat in min space go for a dense hardwood. Ash is probably a good option for us on the speed vs drying vs density vs coppicing metrics.
Very interesting video to watch. I must say my garden/land is not big enough for large coppicing fields of willow. Although it would be interesting to do. I got some hazelnuts that I copice every once in a while. What I did do recently is plant 5 pollard willows. Reason being is they provide plenty of firewood but need less groundspace to grow. They are quite common where I live and I'd say if maintained properply you can harvest them every 4-6years. They provide big stakes of 4-5m tall and with diameters up to 20cm.
Poplar is probably one the best, it grows exeeding quickly and propagates really easily from cuttings. Although not the longest burning, it gives out quick heat to start the fire off and then you can use some denser wood like oak or ash to prolong the burn.
Yes, we have been trialling several types of poplar. Aspen seems to be the best so far but they are too young to use as firewood at the moment. In a dozen years, that might be very different!
Fabulous video thanks😊
Most welcome. I am glad you liked it!
I really like how you give the research that shows the heat output per dry tonne. This overrides all the beliefs of many people based on no real evidence and should stop many debates.
Thanks for that. I really do like proper information to work with. I like to call it 'scientific smallholding'!
Good points. I am in a semi arid sub-sahara savanna area. I grow sweet thorn trees for firewood. They are legumes and pioneers. I cut 10 of them every year and they are size by 5 years or so. I can not run out of trees because I plant again and there is enough space to allow them to grow to 10 years before I need them
I had a look on the google, and those trees look impressive - with serious thorns!
Nice video. Im in Kentucky, and the "large trees" you mentioned that you wouldn't cut down would be considered small here!! I just had a 5' diameter red oak fall across my driveway last winter!!!
On my 30 acres I have a lot of Silver Maples. I coppiced about 20 of them last fall. Each tree was about 6" to 14" in Diameter. Each trunk now has a minimum of 12 shoots and they are all more than 1" in diameter already. Not even 1 year old shoots! I have enough oak for main firewood use, and some pine, but these coppice shoots will be harvested for fire starter wood. Silver maple when dry, and split, catches fire very fast.
@@raycecil4643 wow!!
I have recently concluded the same for me in the wet forest region of the northern Dordogne. Really useful video to confirm my own conclusions for an exposed, clay-rich hillside where we have wet autumns, winters and springs. I also have a neglected hazel coppice to try to encourage back but deer pressure is high so we'll have to see ...
Yes, it really is about choosing the right tree for your location. Deer can be a real problem for us too. We had to install a deer fence to enable our woodland to grow. I don't think you can pollard hazel.....
@@theviewfromtheclouds why wouldn't you be able to Pollard hazel?
You can certainly prune it in an orchard. I used to propagate hazels and I'm pretty sure I've seen them topped and grow back. I'm not sure if that means you can do a proper pollard though
Terrific dog.
She is!
So… this Kiwi agrees with you. And great info on the calorific value of wood by weight. We live in Central Otago, New Zealand. Have always cut our own firewood, was pine, now willow. It’s a pest/ nuisance species here. Every riverbed is full of it. We cut it green, split it straight away: it’s really easy to cut and split when green. It dries super fast in our climate. I’m burning some now that I cut green in late December: it’s too dry, under 10%. I usually cut it from February onwards, start burning mid April. We get through about 10 cubic meters a winter.
It has a bad reputation as firewood here, but that’s perhaps because folk season it too long, or only cut dry dead willow as a last minute option.
Kiaora
How do you stop the pest willow from resprouting at the cut point?
Great Video
Thanks!
Interesting thoughts. I have never considered specifically growing trees for firewood- my thought is that trees are always being grown for a higher value purpose - timber, wind breaks, fruit, syrup and then the byproduct is firewood. Some percentage of trees will always fail to disease and wind etc...
We have plenty of forest around and just use whatever falls in storms - aspen, alder, birch - and thats enough.
Here in scandinavia, birch has always been considered the best firewood. It grows fast, it splits nicely, it dries fast and burns hot and clean. Depending on how you are burning your firewood, that last part can be very important. Pine and spruce are common throughout the whole region, but the evergreens has such a high content of resin, they create much more soot and residue in the stove or furnace, as well as in chimneys. Burning a lot of pine means you have a higher risk of chimney-fires, so you need to sweep your chimneys more frequently.
If you have a modern glassed-in fireplace, that soot is going to clog it up instantly.
If you are stoking your fire manually, the density of the wood determines how fast the fire burns out. Light woods like aspen or poplar will burn out very quickly, -releasing it's energy almost all at once, while heavy woods like oak will take more to ignite, and burns slowly.
But I assume that you have a more mechanized system for stoking your fire if you rely on it for all-year heating. In that case it might not be an issue at all.
I burn allot of spruce and pine as well. I got a regular woodstove with a big glas front. The thing with evergreens is they do contain more resin but my chimney isn't dirtier then my friend's who burns moslty oak and birch.
Evergreens dry out in about a year and a halve where I live but I tend to let them lay for 3years before burning.
A good tip I got when starting to burn them is to burn them hotter. So with more airflow to the fire. I tend not to choke my fireplace as much with pine and spruce as when I am burning oak.
When I load oak I tend to load 3/4 pieces depending upon size and with pine i mostly use 2. I only see smoke coming out the chimney for the first 5minutes then it stops smoking.
A load of pine (2logs) burns for about 35/40minutes and a load of oak goes upwards to 1.5hours in my stove.
Really nice video :) From my experience with firewood the difference is how fast the wood burns. How is it with willow? I don't have much experience with it.
Excellent, straight forward explanation. Oaks trees are too precious for firewood. I like pines for ease of planting but because they don't coppice they are best saved for other purposes except when thinning poorly formed trees. I'm planting cottonwood background poplars which I feel is better adapted to my drier environment.
Thank you for saying so - it means a lot. Good luck with the cottonwoods!
You’ve given me wood!
Willow isn't very common (at least in my area) in Canada, but I do see 2-3 of them when I go take care of my bees. I would like to have a piece of land with a house heated by wood. Maybe one day I will get to go harvest some branches to start a willow coppice.
I did do a bit of research before I found your channel, and I thought that since Maple thrives over here and it is suitable for coppicing it would be a good choice. But I just found that it grows slower than willow (Red Maple is the fastest growing, but still grows at one third the speed of willow.
Thank you for giving me the right question to ask 😊
You're welcome - glad to be of help!
Hi. I love coppicing and pollarding and my idea is to make poplar pollards for firewood as it is very adapted to here in Italy. But I'm concerned by "burning dynamics" of this type of softwood. Did you consider it? I guess that less dense wood, having more room for air, burn way quicker than denser woods, making insane amount of heat in a short time vs slower release. In Italy we say that burning chestnut is like burning paper (it's exaggerated but it gives the idea) as opposed to oak wood. Do you have insights or experience on that? Thank you!
all mass of dry wood has a similar potential heat and takes a similar time to grow. we use time for heating source when you look at it properly. of course it depends on ho you can regulate the air in your heating system - if you can effectively produce heat using smaller pieces of wood
Very true. I find splitting wood to be a very pleasant way to spend time, so that is no problem!
Interesting video. I think people complicate firewood a bit too much. Pretty much all wood burns. What would be interesting are ways to help process it. I think thats the benefit of growing hard wood. 1 ton of hardwood is easier to process as it's half the work. If you split by hand, put your rounds packed tightly into an old car tyre and split them with an axe. Will save you loads of bending
Thanks for these interesting videos. I did a lot of coppicing and pollarding of Crack Willows when I lived in Yorkshire as a process of developing and improving a wetland nature reserve. I had a cottage in the Derwent Wetlands and had some huge gnarly White Willows on the boundary. I emigrated to BC in Canada in 2005 and have recently built a home in a forest of Birch (Paper Bark, Silver and Yellow Species), a predominance of Douglas Fir, some Balsam Fir, Alder and Brush Maple, White Spruce (on the decline) and Trembling Aspen. Local People are zealous in their pursuit of Douglas Fir as firewood and as far as they are concerned they will burn nothing else, they think the Aspen is the worst of the worse. I burn all species and find the Aspen, when well seasoned, goes very hard, I like to burn it because it is extremely clean burning, easy to split, not heavy and in plentiful supply. I also love the White Spruce because it ignites easily and blazes well which helps get the wood stove up to heat quickly and enables it to burn any slightly damp wood effectively. For the coldest days of winter (-25 to -35C) I keep a separate stack of Brush 'Vine Maple' it rarely exceeds 8'' diameter and when seasoned is a hard as rock (it looks like Beech when split) The Yellow Birch is the hardest of the Birches and burns best once seasoned for a couple of years. Our Alder rarely get above 20 feet and I have not burned any yet. Willows out here are more shrublike and easy to grow from whips, beyoond our boundary are some White Cedars and Cottonwoods (which do not burn well). What are of the UK are you living in? Best Regards, Chris
Hi, thanks for your comment. We live in Cumbria, so possibly a bit wetter and milder than Yorkshire. Willow grows very well here because of the rain. I have only been to Canada once, when I was little. It looks like a good place. Do you have much land out there?
Greetings from BC Canada. The area I lived in Yorkshire was the Derwent Valley just South of York, to the rear of my cottage were extensive wetlands fabled for their diverse waterfowl. I now live on the edge of the Shuswap lakes Region, 40 kms East of Kamloops BC. on the side of a mountain at 3,500 feet in 20 acres of forest comprising of Douglas Fir, three species of Birch, Trembling Aspen, White Spruce and a few Balsam Fir, Alder, and a lot of Vine Maples, lots of Scouler Willow a small species). To the North of my boundary on Crown (common) land there ar patches of Red Cedar and the occasional Cottonwood and Mountain Ash. The temperature variable here is from 35C in August to -35C in January with a fair amount of precipitation compared with the arid conditions in the valley to the East. I know Cumbria quite well from hiking and camping there. Best Wishes, Chris@@theviewfromtheclouds
there is a difference, what is good.
or what is good for me !!
context is key. have you considered planting shelterbelts?
Thanks for getting in touch. We have planted lots of shelterbelt, but those trees are still too small to be of much benefit yet. They will be a huge benefit eventually!
A question: is not the smoke from some trees more toxic than others?
Agroforesters promoted sugar gum for woodlots in South Australia because it coppices about twelve times after harvesting repeatedly. Sugar gum is almost as good as mallee. Some of the mallee we have in South Australia is so hard it won’t burn in a combustion heater unless you keep kindling underneath the logs. Mallee fires like this are too hot to be comfortable.
Is Paulownia any good as firewood? It might not like your winds perhaps.
It's interesting that different tree species, having stored a greatly varying number of growing seasons worth of sunlight, give such similar amounts of energy back when burnt.
I agree, it is surprising. I had not expected the similarity in heat by weight. Just shows the value of scientific smallholding! We tried Paulownia, but it does not like our climate. Pity, because it is a really interesting looking tree.
Interesting facts about calorific value but does that take into account the amount of time it takes to burn the equivalent sized log? apologies if that's a dumb question. One thing I dislike about burning pine or wood full of resin is it gives off black smoke and that creates furry black deposits that cling to the inside of my stainless flu. This makes cleaning it a monthly chore rather than every 3 months if I burn say ash.
Hi, I have thought about that too. I don't think I have seen any research on the burn speed vs heat density of different woods. That would be a good experiment for someone to do.
Won't smoke when it's dry and burnt hot enough. Don't smoulder pines
start making biochar and reapplying it to the trees it will increase aeration of the soil, drainage and help with plant fertility. trees will start producing heavy with large bud break numbers after vertical mulching hole around the trees and filling with biochar and fertilizer. It is what im doing in attempt to get a feed back loop.
We came up with the same conclusion...willow is tree that we have planted most for fuel, also in a higher rainfall area; on the Isle of Lewis.
I hope they grow well and help to keep you warm. You will have longer and colder winters than we get, I should imagine.
My land is exceptionally damp so I planted lots of alder about 10 years ago. Having to fell about half of them now because they're too close together but they are about 10" diameter and should coppice back. Willow is almost out of control here and I have invested in a branch logger to deal with it effectively
I had not come across branch loggers before. I googled it and they look really useful. Do you have to remove all of the side branches?
If you don't want them in the final product, then no (although they need to be small or bendy enough so it can drag the branch through). If you feed it nicely snedded stuff, it'll chunk it up very quickly. If you don't have a tractor, you can get petrol powered ones. I have the Remet R120
@@theviewfromtheclouds I separate my wood into 3 piles - stuff that needs chainsawing and splitting, stuff that will go through the branch logger, and brash.
I put the brash through first as it always clogs the spout (although the machine keeps going and it's easy to clear once switched off). I can then put the thicker stuff through, either into a builder's bag or into nets. I'll be uploading some videos at some point and I'll tag you in
One other important factor is how quickly the wood burns as well as heat produced
i calculate for normal firewood about 1 kg = 4,5 kwh
so
2 kg = 9 kwh that is the same 1 m3 natural gas = 9 kwh.
so if you burn 1000 m3 gas or 1800 m3 gas
you can easy calculate how much kg of wood you need.
( when putin close the gas valve off course )
Gas makes up the main component in fertilizers and in artillery propllants, so the cost of its heat is negligeable in comparisson. There will be lack of food and ammo.
Interesting, I didn't know that the heat densities of different dried woods is the same!
How could anyone not know that? It's logical.
@@shoutattheskyno need to be rude
It really is! I had never really thought about it until I came across that graph.
@@garymaxwell3086 I'm not being rude. Why so sensitive? Daddy didn't hug you?
@@theviewfromtheclouds but normally you buy wood in cubic metres (at least that is how it is here in France), so the denser woods are more expensive.
Why haven't you considered chestnut trees?
You can coppice them from around 10 - 15yrs old.
A bonus is all of the bluebells that come to life once an area has been coppiced.
Hybrid willow are amazing
Damn! Takes two seasons to dry wood in England!
Takes less if you use a pollytunnel
Good information, thank you. The music is annoying.
Sorry about that!
In Canada we buy firewood by the "cord" which is a whacky unit of volume. So, people prefer dense wood. You buy firewood by volume, but what you want is dry weight... It's imperfect
Hi senorjp21, yes it would be ideal if we could buy wood by dry weight. However, I think the cord system does have some strong advantages over what we have here in the UK. As long as you have an idea what species you are buying, you can make a good guess as to the heat content based on how many cords you are buying as it is much the same size green and dry. Sadly, here in the UK, there is no standard firewood measure of any sort so you really have little idea what you are buying till arrives. The quantity is often just described as 'what fits in the pickup'! It is less than ideal.
My choice in soil that isn't quite so boggy would be to grow hazel. Depending on the species (and most require 2 different species for cross-pollination), you can get nuts within 2-4 years of growth, and they can be coppiced every 5 years, so you'd get fuel for your body as well as fuel for your hearth!
Good thinking! We reached the same conclusion and have planted several dozen. No nuts yet, though!
@@theviewfromthecloudswhat kind of hazel are you growing if I might ask?
@@theviewfromtheclouds Awesome! I live near Seattle, so obviously I'd be going with native hazelnut species as much as possible. It's always best to get whatever is native since it's far more likely to survive the local climate conditions.
I'd also pick hazel for another reason: It burns hot even at small diameters, which makes it great for a Rocket Mass Heater. Oak is great for a more traditional woodstove or fireplace, but I prefer the much steadier heat and thermal efficiency of RMHs.
For an RMH, you don't want big thick pieces of long-lasting slow-burning firewood; you want thin pieces that burn hot enough to re-ignite the volatile organic compounds in the smoke, giving you a secondary burn and dramatically reducing ash residue & creosote buildup.
I know a lot of people have been slamming willow as a poor choice for firewood, but if a person splits and thoroughly dries the coppiced branches, you'll still manage to get quite a lot of BTUs out of the wood with a Rocket Mass Heater.
...For those who don't like the idea of playing around with constructing your own RMH with heated cob bench, etc, you can instead consider getting a soapstone fireplace, such as the Tulikivi, out of Finland. They have a similar thermal storage-and-release capacity, using soapstone instead of cob as the primary thermal mass.
(Even just a more normal style woodstove with soapstone side panels will produce a longer-lasting heat over several hours than a regular iron woodstove, which will heat up faster, but cool down a lot quicker as well, meaning you'd have to constantly low-and-slow burn the wood in it to maintain heat overnight...and still have to get up to feed the fire a number of times, all of which leads to severe creosote buildup in short order.)
Nice hoggle drop
Glad you liked it!
I loved that too!
I didn't see Leylandii on that list. I've been burning it in my wood stove and it's as good if not better than yew. I know everyone looks down on it as an abomination but it's fast growing, makes an excellent wind break and there's loads of it!
I agree that it generally grows well in most areas. We have planted a few dozen of them as a windbreak, but ours are not doing that well. The ground here is very wet. I am not sure why some species were included on that graph and others were not. I suppose Leylandii is not commonly grown for its timber so it got left out? Not sure.
Started watching for the wood, stayed for the dog
Yes, she is wonderful!
What about Paulownia?
We are thinking of trying them again - the ones we grew a couple of years ago did not survive.
Hybrid popular will thrive in your environment and after 5 years you will have a tree with a trunk the width of a spade
Yes, I think you are right. Finding the right variety of poplar is the challenge though.. We have planted 6 or 7 different varieties and hybrids, but none of them thrived. I have a few more to try, so hopefully we will have some success soon!
Please consider some tranquilizers for your severely overactive dog. lol such a cuddlebug!
Yes, she is. She is super chilled and snuggly!
The Firewood Poem
By Lady Celia Congreve
Published in The Times: March 2nd 1930
These hardwoods burn well and slowly,
Ash, beech, hawthorn oak and holly.
Softwoods flare up quick and fine,
Birch, fir, hazel, larch and pine.
Elm and willow you’ll regret,
Chestnut green and sycamore wet.
Beechwood fires are bright and clear,
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut’s only good, they say,
If for long ’tis laid away.
But Ash new or Ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs bum too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said,
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood bums like churchyard mould,
E’en the very flames are cold.
But Ash green or Ash brown,
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room,
With an incense like perfume.
Oaken logs if dry and old,
Keep away the winter’s cold.
But Ash wet or Ash dry,
A king shall warm his slippers by.
Oak logs will warm you well,
That are old and dry.
Logs of pine will sweetly smell,
But the sparks will fly.
Birch logs will burn too fast,
Chestnut scarce at all sir.
Hawthorn logs are good to last,
That are cut well in the fall sir
Holly logs will burn like wax,
You could burn them green.
Elm logs burn like smouldering flax,
With no flame to be seen.
Beech logs for winter time,
Yew logs as well sir.
Green elder logs it is a crime,
For any man to sell sir.
Pear logs and apple logs,
They will scent your room.
And cherry logs across the dogs,
They smell like flowers of broom.
But Ash logs smooth and grey,
Buy them green or old, sir.
And buy up all that come your way,
They’re worth their weight in gold sir.
Logs to Burn, Logs to burn, Logs to burn,
Logs to save the coal a turn.
Here’s a word to make you wise,
When you hear the woodman’s cries.
Never heed his usual tale,
That he has good logs for sale.
But read these lines and really learn,
The proper kind of logs to burn
Interesing you should mention that..... check out our new video on the way soon!
I don't think there are many places in the British Isles where the right answer isn't willow (maybe some places in East Anglia?). Do you pollard?
Short answer....
willow.
You see - its all about asking the right question. Then, the answer is easy!
Red gum
Beech leaves very little ash.
Thanks - I don't think I have had the pleasure of burning much ash. Ash does make a fair bit of ash!
Yeah willows actually alright its easy to grow and you burn what you have a lot of.
I agree - it is a decent wood and it really does well here.
@@theviewfromtheclouds Aye down in the southeast here where the marshes are it's largely willows and Poplars that do anything aha. To be fair the Oak does alright but is definitely the land of the Salix at sea level lol
Please don’t cut down those trees 🥺 they are so much more than just wood…
Coppicing for firewood is 💯 the way to go 🎉
Just reached 6:25 ! Phew ❤
Don't worry. Those trees are staying just as they are. Our firewood will come from windblown trees and our coppice. :)
@@theviewfromtheclouds I love you 🤟 🥰 Thank you so much for these videos - for sharing your knowledge and lifestyle for others to be inspired by… keep doing what you are doing 😇
No, no it’s not 👍🏽
Do not chop oak trees or scots pine! Down!!
Sorry, but volume matters, weight doesn’t. The only fact on this video - calories chart is interesting, but useless. It is how much volume you grow in an acre, how much volume wood takes in shed, how much of it fits in your stove and then how often you need to refuel. It is ALL about volume, not weight.
Willow is the absolute worst firewood - very twisty, hard to chop, least calorific value, rots asap if gets wet. Furthermore it propagates like crazy. Sure, if nothing else grows, it’s ok, but there are better species that will save your time vs give loads of volume of crappy wood to deal with.
What would you recommend then?
@@richardweaver1062 don’t get me wrong, I think in your case willow is great, white/black alder would likely be better (black better for wind resistance). It would be interesting to see some number based wind resistance, root penetration numbers. Since both my and your opinion it’s just that - an opinion. I have read a good few books on forestry and tree species (native to Lithuania) and the numbers can be found :)
Australia Ironbark is the best. Dense heavy hardwood
I was surprised alder wasn’t mentioned. I live in the same part of the world as the video maker and it does really well.
Willow is good if you are chipping it for biomass, not so good for wood burning logs as it grows long thin whips rather than solid branches.
Hi, thanks for the comment. We have also planted lots of alder. It does grow here, but not at nearly the speed of willow and aspen. Glad it is working well for you, though!
Willow produces less heat than many other types of wood. Willow ranks poorly for coaling. Willow is really good kindling.I would burn it if that is all I could get. I mix it with all my good wood works great. Willow is definitely not the best firewood in the world.
I suppose it depends on how you get your wood. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy willow, but as for growing it... that is a different question. For us, on our land, it seems to be the most promising so far. Your situation may be very different. Thanks for your thoughts.
Less heat and burns faster.That's why they say hardwoods all the way. .